Lighting up: marijuana legalization proposed in Pa.

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State Sen. Daylin Leach (D-17th) announced Monday his proposal to legalize marijuana in Pennsylvania, a move swiftly dismissed by a spokeswoman for Gov. Tom Corbett (R) as not being “in the interest of public safety.”

Unlike previous proposals to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes, Leach’s bill would legalize it for anyone over 21 to use. He said it would be treated much in the same way alcohol is.

“This is a cruel, irrational policy that we’ve had for 75 years,” said Leach. “Marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol and tobacco.”

When asked how businesses potentially selling marijuana would be regulated by the government, Leach said that wasn’t clear yet.

He acknowledged the political challenge in getting a proposal like this one passed but pointed to recent laws passed in Colorado and Washington legalizing pot.

“People ask me about the politics of this. In the short term, it’s a tough slog. But, long term, and not that long term, it’s inevitable,” said Leach.

Under his plan, DUI laws would still apply. There would be no limit on how much pot you can buy. But, like alcohol, you can’t re-sell it. There would be limits on how much a person could grow. Leach aimed to have the bill filed by Tuesday morning.

Past efforts to legalize marijuana in the commonwealth have been unsuccessful.

“Governor Corbett has personally witnessed the devastation of illegal drugs on Pennsylvania communities throughout his career; he does not believe that loosening restrictions on illegal drugs is in the interest of public safety,” said Janet Kelley, a spokeswoman for Gov. Corbett, in a statement to Fox43.

A Franklin & Marshall College poll released last week found some support for legalizing marijuana among Pennsylvanians.

The pollsters asked, “Generally speaking, do you favor or oppose allowing adults to legally use marijuana for medical purposes if a doctor recommends it?”

They found 82 percent of those surveyed at least somewhat favored that idea, with 51 percent strongly favoring it.

When asked, “Do you think the use of marijuana should be made legal or not,” 36 percent said yes while 55 percent said no. When the pollsters asked that question in May 2006, 22 percent said yes while 72 percent said no.

Leach invited a psychiatrist and a former law enforcement professional to share their thoughts at his press conference Monday.

They pointed to issues such as medical benefits and the cost to the judicial system to prosecute cases involving nonviolent offenders using marijuana.

Major Neill Franklin, executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, is retired from the Maryland State Police. He described the “violence of illicit drug trade,” and gangs thriving on the illegal sale of marijuana.

Cumberland County District Attorney Dave Freed (R) handled one of the region’s biggest marijuana busts last year when police seized nearly 2,700 pot plants estimated to generate $10 million in product per year.

Freed said he does not believe legalizing marijuana would significantly reduce the kinds of crimes Franklin described.

“I know what’s going on, and what’s going is: marijuana’s a gateway that leads to crime and leads other drugs,” said Freed. “And this is, frankly, a waste of time and a waste of effort. If law enforcement in Pennsylvania was behind this, you would have seen some law enforcement in Pennsylvania out there today.”

56 comments

Cheepz

Its time we legalized it. Let the majority decide. I doubt the consumption rate will increase, it is extremely easy to get a hold of Cannabis in PA. Making it legal will send revenue towards the state and maybe even bailout Harrisburg.

Mister,Mister

Guest

You are an idiot!! Who has ever heard of someone smoking pot then coming home to beat their wife, kids, etc.?? I've heard of lots of people drining alcohol and doing that!! Pot should be legal and alcohol should be illegal!!!!!! ALCOHOL KILLS NOT POT!!! Also alcohol is one of the only DRUGS that you can die from while going through withdrawal……IDIOT!!!

Thomas Brackton

guest

At what point is the government going to listen to what the people want and stop letting politics and lobbyists determine the agenda. Colorado and Washington made it clear that the current laws aren't what the public wants. Pennsylvania needs to get out of the dark ages when it comes to things like this and alcohol laws ands get on pace with the rest of the US. We are constantly seen as this state that does things the "old" way and refuses to keep up with the times. Governor Corbett please take a long, unbiased look at the way things are done and what the people in your state want.

guest

its time to legalized it. I think its time to do it I am in favor of it..i thik it would be a good way to get the government out of debt and the state as well. I don't think its a gateway drug. its a lot more healthier then drinking and smoking cigs. so I think its time.

Mister,mister

guest

most of the jails are filled with people who smoked it and our jails are over full these people are no harm to anyone! it makes people more alert and focus, helps people sleep and relax and IT IS NOT A GATEWAY DRUG! I wouldn't consider it as a drug its a plant God put it on earth for a reason beer and liquor is more of a drug than Marijuana they need to legalize it anyway its 2013 its not like bathsalts when people are chewing each others face off why don't they put these lunatics in jail and not the people who wanna take the stress away?

TJ Durken

It's a gateway drug in the sense that my uncle got busted in NYC with 4 oz and spent 20 years in prison during the Rockefeller Drug Laws which had a minimum of 15 years and a Maximum of 25 years prison time….. only to have his son pick up where he left off to help the mother make ends meet for a household of 4.

So the public paid about 20k a year for 20 years + welfare and food stamps to house a "Dangerous threat to society"

By the time it was all said and done, they cost taxpayers over half a million dollars to help produce a second drug dealer (this one sold crack though)

Nothing to worry about, it created jobs for prison workers, over zealous police that get off on breaking people's doors down and killing their pets and it further corrupts politics. It's amazing that people haven't caught on to the symbiosis between organized crime and political favors/ power and dirty officials. This all dates back to the 1800's with the mafia and much much further with other countries. I swear the people that run this country either failed history or are just corrupt, and considering that they climbed to the top to rule, It would be wiser to go with the latter.

chris

Theres no reason they shouldnt legalize it. If its ok to sell alcohol in grocery stores then why cant an adult choose whether or not they wanna have a beer or smoke a little pot. I feel that i am responsible enough to make make my own decisions. Not only will it relieve the prisons of over crowding but also it will help our state out with the deficit that we all are burdened with.

Rodney

marijuana is our #1 cash crop the problem is the business end of things . This plant is currently being utilized by police to aquire unlimited resources not from the costs and fines of marijuana aLONE BUT BY THEIR gov't legal pillaging and plundering these taxpaying citizens assets. This creates one big lobbying entity for prohibition. One plant for a cure-all no, that is not good for pharmaceutical business,or what about the logging industry or the petrolium industry, which i'm sure these politicians must have no ties. Prohibition demonizes children's natural curiosity at age 18 i had recieved a felony charge for marijuana. Very Permanent very unremovable., Because this had to do with marijuana i cannot file for gov't educational loans or grants and am stuck being underemployed.Yet Rapists Murderers and Pedophiles ARE eligible for these benefits, as long as they didn't have a doobie on them when they get caught. Sound odd to anyone else?

Kyle G

I think its messed up that a drug that became legal in 2 other states is still a class 1 drug and is treated like heroin.. Saying its a gateway drug is true…but only because it is illegal, if and adult where to walk into a dispenser to buy a gram of marijuana, there would be no thoughts of doing harder drugs, the reason marijuana is called a gateway drug because when someone goes full-out stoner, they tend to get the best stuff and they meet people higher up in the drug dealing world and one day when there going to get some for a quick pickup, they end up being exposed to harder drugs. If pot was legalized there would be no exposures to harder drugs at dispensaries, no peer pressure by the people who work there, just marijuana, which is exactly what they came for. Also saying that if it was legalized, kids would think it is okay to do it, Which in a way…is true. It would be true because in our culture it would become as regular as liquor, but there is no way to stop a kid once he has tried marijuana (if they like it) they are going to do everything in their power to get weed, which could eventually lead to meeting new people that would expose them to harder drugs. Ask yourself a question, would you rather have kids smoking pot and driving, or drinking and driving? its sad to say that they both happen regardless of what the law is, but it could help stop many crimes, for there are kids who think that smoking pot is a way to stick it to the man, and rebel against what others think. This is just my opinion though.

DFJ

I feel as though that crime would reduce dramatically. Increase revenue for the state, especially Harrisburg which the state capital. I don't understand how anyone in the world can still have anythin negative about marijuana, I'm pretty sure anyone that has tried that amazing plant knows exactly why this should be legalized in the country let alone the state.

TJ Durken

Either the politicians have no interest in looking at facts & empirical data, or they have too many conflicting interests/ are to corrupt to actually represent their constituents. I've looked at so much data and pretty much everything the anti-marijuana proponents have said has been debunked. Whether its the killing of brain cells, the gateway drug theory or the reduction/ distribution of illegal drugs.

Let me spell out the gateway theory, because i feel that is one of the most important aspects to correct. The gateway drug theory is so misunderstood that every time I read an anti-marijuana legalization article it is clear that they have no clue what they are even writing about.

Keeping it illegal builds the underworld economy and underworld. One needs only to look back at history during the Volstead Act. Alcohol violence, use and related death skyrocketed and offered a nice footing for the mafia to grow its wings beyond gambling and racketeering.

Now what happens is kids curiosity draws them to try it, whether they drank first, had coffee or smoked cigarette are insignifigant (majority drank or smoked cigs first) but that doesn't fit anti-marijuana's agenda, so lets forget that.

So the kids try it, introduce it to whichever friends haven't tried it and they too spread their wings and begin networking the networking is the gateway. And the illegal conduits that exist thanks to supply/ demand become the interface for exposing all the kids to drugs.

Making it legal separates the marijuana from the harder drugs and the underworld economy keeping kids safer and further away from the more dangerous drugs.

cclark

liss

does anybody even know Jesus Christ was baptized with cannabis oil. everybody's acting like its evil….

"The holy anointing oil, as described in the original Hebrew version of the recipe in Exodus, contained over six pounds of keneh-bosum – a substance identified by respected etymology, linguists anthropologists, botanists and other researchers as cannabis extracted into about six quarts of olive oil along with a variety of other fragrant herbs.

"The ancient annointed ones were literally drenched in this potent mixture."

Jay

gerald rocker

One of PA's leading employer's is the prison and jail systems, legalizing something that affects them and the courts and probation officials would be counter productive to the states elite. I do not think we will see legalization on our lifetime, unless campaign contributions laws were greatly changed.

Martin Main JR

Let's take a look at the facts. What happens when you consume too much alcohol? You can die. What happens when you swallow too many painkillers? You can die. What happens when you smoke too much pot? Nothing! It's impossible to overdose on marijuana. Most car accidents aren't related to some stoned teens; A majority of them occur from drunk driving.

Alcohol kills your kidney. Causes all sorts of internal issues. Cigarettes are the same. They even have potential to give you one of the most deadly diseases know to mankind, Cancer! We could even go on about all of these pills the FDA will approve. Look at all those side effects. The things the government say are allowed to be given to kids for things like ADHD or ADD, what did the side effects of those happen to be? Ones that cause nausea, vomiting, and so on can be legal, why not the one that has the most potential to help people without a mass domino effect like that of pills.

America has grown. It has aged. It's time to get with the times. The people shouldn't ever be told they can't do something in the land of the free. Especially when that something is less harmful than that of your average day painkiller. Stoners don't kill and steal for a joint, but they can keep pumping out all of these addictive painkillers to have bloodshed over? Marijuana isn't the drug that is out of control. Legalize it and get to work on the ones abusing the 'medicine' released to them.

charlie

CrossedFingers

When is our gov. going to wake the f**k up? All I hear is crying about not having enough money fund our state. The answer is right in front of us. Try listening to the people…not your own agenda.
As far as being a dangerous drug? I agree with all that was said above. Why don't they try getting rid of alcohol? Lets see how our gov likes that. For myself….weed never made me get violent and think everything is a good idea…like fighting, stealing, driving under the influence, shooting dope. Alcohol did though.
I was sober for 15 years. I was on all kinds of anti-depressents and the side effects were horrible. I started smoking again a few years ago and i am off all meds, feel good, no side effects. I do not drink or anything else. I am an upstanding citizen. I am well respected in my job and loved by my family and friends. I am not a scumbag druggie that the gov and law enforcement makes us out to be. I would live to see this state and government finally make a good decision and actually do something that the people want.

Guest

L_Trozzi

PA wont legalize it. Even if the masses demand it, they will not permit it mainly because we are a prison state. We have one of the nations largest incaceration rates for marijuana. remember the record setting Pot Bust? when have you heard about anything about heroine? Coke? Dmt? The list goes on and on. Why is that? Marijuana is a cash cow in federal finance for PA. Harder drugs place the police in situations where they are in much greater danger. I support the legalization of marijuana but i think we need to get current office holders out.

Amazing1der

TJ Durken

This should be an issue that the Republicans pick up. This whole issue is like a microcosm of the election. They are losing the party to the younger generations with issues like Gay Marriage, Contraception, women's equality etc. Bobby Jindal is even stating the obvious "That we look like the stupid party" Now we have Republican Governor Corbett up their sounding stupid to everyone under 60 and probably half of everyone above 60. Dude, you look like a dinosaur that can't accept reality. Why don't you learn some facts about the topics you talk about instead of bending over for your corporate pimps?

Rodney67

I don't care either way but don't suggest it will get the government out of debt. There is no way that will happen they will not only spend it they will spend twice as much as they make. Government will always be in debt. Legalize it and at the same time pass stricter laws and punishment targeting other types of drugs and the dealers that supply it and i'd be okay with that.

TJ Durken

True, it won't be enough to get us out of debt, but any money right now will help. And I'd much rather the police focus on more pressing matters. There are thousands of people that go missing every day and we spend enormous resources towards things like $800 dollars an hour to fly a helicopter in kentucky to look for plants that will either die or be harvested in 1 month.

I also think they need to up the educational requirements of police. I appreciate the job some do, but a lot of police use narcotics training to climb to the top and the most dangerous thing they end up doing is bringing dogs to high schools to find joints in kids lockers. Then you have kids disqualified from financial aid while the presidential candidates talk about how to get more kids educations. Oh no what should we do? Lets let everyone in from other countries to get US degrees so they can take them back home while we ring our hands and fret about a lack of engineers and other technical professionals.

Check the news out. Philly just busted rouge narcotics officers last week and a month ago Camden just sentence police that were robbing drug dealers at gun point.

Jeff (not Jumper)

Yup – Marijuana is a gateway to other illegal drugs. Our government long ago put Marijuana in the same category as Cocaine, LSD and others. They told everyone that Marijuana makes you crazy, a thief, and even a murderer.

And here's the gateway – When people (mostly the younger crowd) do try Marijuana and find that it does Not make you crazy and such, they think – Well if this Marijuana that the government said was the scourge of our time did not make me even come close to what they said it would, well then the other drugs that are also in the same category must not be all that bad as well.

Our government categorized Marijuana without any knowledge of it. Now, Finley, There is ongoing research. Research that has yet to produce the harsh, addictive and crazy results as that of the other drugs within the same category. Research that actually produced medical benefits.

Our own government made it a gateway. I think it's time for our government to wake up and smell the coffee, which, by the way, (caffeine) is more physically addictive than Marijuana.

TJ Durken

I remember DARE in high school and this big fat cop help up a DUG-OUT with one hitter and was like this is for people that are so addicted to pot that they can't go an hour with out it. I owned one at the time and I was thinking, "I bet Coke and LSD aren't as bad as they say since they obviously don't have the faintest idea what they are talking about with respect to weed."

Note, have nothing against fat people, but look at Gov. Christie worrying about people's health in regards to weed, or Obama while he smokes a Cigs or the genius up in Boston that was an alcoholic, hooked on pain killers and now is worried about Marijuana. Mccain thinks its a bad idea and that pharmies are better, yet his wife Owns Busch beer and stole from a kid's charity for prescription meds. John Edwards said it would send the wrong message to kids while he got a mistress pregnant and his wife was fighting cancer. F all these pieces of garbage passing judgement on me. I have my life together. Do they?

NO. 1 KILLER IS HEART DISEASE AND THE CRAP THE FDA LETS FOOD PRODUCERS GET AWAY WITH IS SCARY. No real priorities of any importance from the government elite.

cclark

I agree! I spoke openly with my children about drugs and what actually happens when you do them. I never understood why people would lie to their children about this for the EXACT reason you stated! An abundance of "good" kids at some point in time try pot. When they realize they have been lied to about what actually happens when you smoke it, they react by not trusting anything else they have been told.

Rich

So let me get this right, marijuana should be legalized so we can have another generation baked out of their minds that will add to our growing welfare problem of people who are addicts who can't work because they are so messed up or just don't want to work to contribute to our society. I am sick of paying and supporting people who have messed up their lives and expect the rest of us to support them, while I am a 20 something year old male trying to support myself while the government is telling me I need to keep shelling money out to these "morons" so they can live. If you want the marijuana so bad, then deal with the consequences as well and realize when you are soo messed up there would be no more handouts to make sure you can live. As my favorite quote goes from A Christmas Carol. if you are gong to mess up you life, "I would rather you die and decrease the surplus population" then me have to pay for you to keep living and mess your life up.

And to those you have made the comparison that coffee is more addictive, well if it is true, I don't know when the last time I read that someone was so caffeinated that they could not work or yet killed someone while on the substance.

The problem with our society today is that it does not know how to do things in moderation. It would be ok to legalize a drug like marijuana if people would use it sparingly, but in the case of many that is not true, and for those who would use it appropriately I apologize. Legalizing marijuana would create a society of people not willing to contribute to society, but expect society to take care them, in case as the growing welfare problem her in Lebanon as well as the rest of the nation.

cclark

Neill Franklin

Which goal of marijuana prohibition is working? Oh yes, 750,000 arrests of people across the nation every year, costing the TAX PAYERS a few billion. Cops spending no less than 2,250,000 man-hours every year arresting pot smokers when they could be solving murders, rapes and robberies. How about finding the hundreds of children who go missing across this country every year. Sixty to seventy percent of all illegal drug profits are generated from marijuana sales and these billions line the pockets of the cartel and neighborhood gangs. And what do these gangs do, they shoot people over turf. Sometimes they shoot the wrong people like the young girl in Chicago. How can they afford to buy so many guns? Hummmm!!! And what do they do with these guns when they are not shooting at the competition? They use them for settling other conflicts, like a simple disagreement.

Rich, the list of harms inflicted upon our society from policies of prohibition is long. That’s why alcohol prohibition only lasted for thirteen years. Obviously, our grandparents were much wiser than we are today. Use rates continue to skyrocket under our current policies of prohibition. Anything will become more dangerous to use when distributed illegally by criminals.

Here’s what most people fail to realize or understand. If marijuana is regulated and controlled, less kids will use. Our current distribution system not only sells marijuana to kids, but they recruit children to sell to other children. Liquor outlets do not sell alcohol to children and will never higher children to peddle their goods. Will kids still be able to find marijuana? Of course, but less of it. And when they do happen to find it, there will be far less a chance of it being laced with something dangerous.

Forty plus years of a very disastrous policy continues to bankrupt this country in more ways than one. If you want to curb marijuana use, do it using the same strategies we used for tobacco. Teach, treat and make it socially unacceptable.

paul

So lets say your mother gets cancer and you can't afford the medical treatments, would you rather her die and decrease the surplus population or sign up for welfare and give her a fighting chance? Think before you speak and watch who you insult. You never know when it'll come around to bite you in the ass.

TokinMarine

Rich why don't you get your facts straight. I served four years in the United States Marine Corps infantry. I smoke pot to help me get to sleep at night. I wake up every day and go to school and work. I have a 3.7 GPA and I am about to graduate with honors. I never miss school or work. I pay taxes just like everyone else. It is people like you who give marijuana a bad name. You are probably one of those people that have never smoked pot but just hear all of the myths about it. No it won't get our state or even our country out of debt, but it will put a huge dent in it. So when you want to bad mouth a group of people, just remember that an educated United States Marine just proved you wrong. Go find something else that you know a little more about to complain about.

Richard III

Rich – What are you talking about? Did you go to a public school or where you home-schooled or something? I have tons of friends from high school that smoked MJ and now have good paying jobs, families and are active in the community.

1/3 of the population has already tried it. It isn't for everyone, and the availability and the fact that only 1 out of every 20 users have been caught means the laws don't do much to curtail usage. I've known one irresponsible marijuana user to the 30 or 40 people that live productive lives and contribute to society. I think you need to grow up and gain a little wisdom.

What I am sick of paying for is all the added enforcement costs to keep it illegal. A comparison was done by the Canadian government and they found that the enforcement cost of Marijuana far outweighed the health costs. What they also found was that the health cost of Tobacco and Alcohol far outweighed the health costs of Marijuana…..

Here's the kicker, despite all of that, the Government was spending like 8 times the combined health/ enforcement costs of both Tobacco and Alcohol just to enforce Marijuana.

The writing is on the wall. Prohibition is a big cash cow for the government and people like you enable them with extra power. Do you own your body? Do you want the government telling you what you can and can't consume?

30k a year to incarcerate non-violent drug users or put that money towards healthcare, education and let the cops focus on VIOLENT offenders. While we are at it, it will take money away from organized crime and shrink their grasp on crime.

Richard III

tony

Scott

Rich, you are an absolute retard. I love how conservatives say they don't want big government and how the government takes our freedoms away. Well, it is the conservatives in government that are doing it. Stop listening to Glenn Beck, Hannity, Limbaugh, etc. and quit living in the bubble.

TJ Durken

Glenn beck , Hannity, Limbaugh and O'reily do a great job at separating the idiots from the masses.
They are fundamentally cancer to the republican party and the people preaching their talking points are too naive or stupid to see it.

TMY

I am so sick of marijuana being called a gateway drug. There are lots of people who smoke marijuana and have never tried any other drug. I have also never heard of someone smoking it and becoming violent. The lawmakers don't want to legalize it because then the Prescription Drug companies couldn't pedal their harmful and addictive pills as easily. Have you ever listened to the side effects on the pills they advertise on TV? The side effects are worse than the disease you're taking them for. I predict this country would no longer have a deficit if they legalized it.

nunya

common sensi

apparently the majority feels the same.legalize it.I have smoked cigs for over thirty years and will probably die from it in some manner shape or form and it is perfectly legal for me to purchase something known to be extremely addictive and will eventually kill me but the politicians think that's just okey dokey.talk about things that make you go hmmm.oh yeah look up the rick simpson cure folks pretty interesting stuff and could probably save a whole lotta lives.hmmmm.can you say population control.what would happen if they found the cure for cancer?would we run ot of food,land,water sheesh it's mind boggling.ok rant is over.it's all just common sense.

Greg

I think legalizing in PA is a good thing, not only for the smoke, but also for the economic uprising this will become of. To many politicians want to throw harmless Pot Smokers into a prison system, when a law that was passed in the 1930's still has an affect. Police are to worried about drug busting Marijuana when they should be cracking down on meth addicts, heroin addicts, and other hard drugs. It upsets me that the legislature will just deter a no doubt easy topic, when Colorado and Washington have already passed it. Sure PA will be on the news and Corbett probably doesnt want to be exposed to his family everywhere because he is scared for some obvious reason. They need to legalize the plant and if PA ever does they better not put chemicals in the product like they do with cigarettes to eventually kill you, i know i would rather smoke a bowl or joint then smoke a cigarette. Not to mention Pot is no addicting, you are able to stop at anytime. And as a gateway drug that is biased, because their are pills that you can get subscribed to from your doctor like Percs and Xanax. If you are able to obtain an illegal pill through a doctor why not hemp.

DANIEL

Ryan

I am all for legalization of recreational and medical use,what concerns me is this is PA.I haven't heard a damn thing about industrial hemp???I grew up on a dairy farm in PA surrounded by other farms,well guess what ! Most of them are all gone now,and while Canadian hemp Co.s ship in tons of it to the U.S each day ,our gov. won't let our farmers grow it! I think maybe you would see life come back to those family farms , the income from the hemp possibly could help the ones that are left survive.

john

Weed does less to you then cigarettes and alcohol. It has been proven that weed is not a gateway drug and it actually lessens the hard drug use. It also is a good medicine for many different illnesses.

brian

The comment that bothers me most is the police not supporting the bill. Their job is to enforce the law. Jobs seem to be getting confused, like the governor, his job is to pass laws the people beleive are appropriate. He is not to decide what is appropriate for the people. That seems to be a big problem with the government today. His slogan should have been " corbett for governor he's just like all the rest".